A Teachable Moment
by Overworkedunderwhelmed
Summary: An unexpected player discovers the true identity of Paris's Protectors and struggles with how to deal with that knowledge, especially considering the heroes haven't figured out all that she knows.
1. Chapter 1

_For galahadwilder, whose idea post on Tumblr would not let me sleep._

 _Although I will shortly and dream of more of the the antics that will follow._

* * *

Caline Bustier was an unrepentant romantic. Living in Paris all her life, it was hard not to be.

She'd fallen in love with the romantic outfits, dressing each day as light and breezy as the relatively lax faculty dress code would allow. Her red hair was so often pulled back into a professional coif, but she couldn't fight the temptation to add just a touch of curl to the end. She'd fallen in love with the written word, happy enough in her job to impress that same affection onto her young students. On her weekends, she loved nothing more that settling into the nearest bookshop or park, with a lovely book to keep her hopes alive.

Even her latest paramour had the sweetest romantic bend. He'd worked at one of those same bookshops, bringing her just as many flowers as he did books as often as they both could get away in the evening for a date night.

But not matter how much she tried to surround herself with the air of romance, there would always be the cynics - like Madame Mendeleiev- who trusted in science and the chemistry of romance. The elder woman was just not inclined to believe that the two were actually quite the same thing, despite some rather long and drawn out conversations to the contrary. She loved nothing more than the try to punch holes into her more romantic notions, given the slightest opportunity.

Since her first year of teaching at Collège Françoise Dupont, Madame Mendeleiev had consistently dismissed her as the young, idealistic girl who life hadn't drained the romance from yet.

Even after these few years of trying, Caline hadn't quite given up on convincing her fellow teacher that romance was anything but dead. She just needed an example.

She usually loved to see hints of it on the streets of Paris. From the tourists, from the couples of all ages she ran into in her daily walk to the Collège.

To her surprise, one perfectly good-perfectly convenient-example, fell right into her classroom.

She wasn't really sure how it had happened at first.

* * *

In spite of her brief absence from the room prior to the first day's lesson, Caline quickly grew aware of the power struggle that had come to a head and suddenly dissipated on those first tense few days of school when all this messy Akuma business had begun. Rightfully, she had been far more focused on Ivan's conflict with Kim, but Chloé's antics had not escaped her notice.

She had heard enough in the staff room to avoid Chloé to the fullest extent possible and was relieved when the tension had broken almost as quickly as it started.

By the end of the first week, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, a quiet girl by all accounts, had gone from spit-fire who took on the girl that all the teachers were afraid to touch to endearingly awkward teen when a certain blonde-haired boy was involved.

Sometimes it was such a struggle to watch her fellow romantics slowly, but inevitably fall. And fail hard. Over and over again.

But of course, poor Adrien was clearly oblivious to the poor girl's feelings, even as the rest of the class slowly caught on to the situation.

* * *

Frowning, Caline nibbled as her lip as she prepared to enter the classes grades into the electronic system at the close of the fall semester.

It was frankly amazing that either Adrien or Marinette had managed to keep their grades up between the near constant stream of excused absences from class.

But often enough they weren't gone much longer than their peers, as Akuma attacks usually caused early dismissal to get the students and all the faculty safely away from the attack zone so Ladybug and Chat Noir could do their clean up work.

Collège Françoise Dupont was so often in the near radius of the attacks, if not the very site of an Akuma being formed, that such instances were treated with the utmost seriousness, thanks in very large part to Principal Damocles having to interact with several of the first few Akumatized students himself.

It was such a commonplace occurrence that she had noted each absence in her daily journal to help compile the final grades. But for some odd reason, it really didn't stick out in her mind until now.

She shook her head, trying to shake off this crazy idea that had started to form in her brain.

Stories had taught her often enough that coincidence was often anything but. Madame Mendeleiev would be very quick to inform her that just came from reading too much fiction.

Lips settling into a thin line, she logged out of the system and settled in to reassure herself it was entirely impossible that she was teaching Paris's heroes. Luckily, Alya Césaire's intrepid reporting had done most of the research grunt work for her.

Her records of the days and times of the Akuma attacks and her records of their shared absences aligned with alarming regularity.

Not all of the attacks had started during her class, and as she wasn't certain just what to do with this thread of information just yet, she couldn't very well act or mention her suspicions without more cause.

No one knew just who the protectors of Paris truly were. Clearly there was some reason their identities were such a closely guarded secret.

So resolved, she'd decided to watch the pair of them far more closely in the spring semester. If nothing else, she just intended to confirm that her wild theory actually had some merit.

* * *

Caline tugged at the sleeves of her jacket, smoothing out the wrinkles as the class settled into to their tests. There had only been a few attacks in that first week back and of those, only today's attack had been during school thus far while they attended Madame Mendeleiev's physics class.

She pressed on a smile, crossing her arms over her chest as she prepared to square off with the violet haired dragoness. "Did Adrien leave for his photo shoot on time?"

Madame Mendeleiev's blue eyes rolled at the notion. "Yes, he couldn't get out of class fast enough. Neither could Miss Dupain-Cheng." Her fists fell at her hips, as she shook her head in irritation. "I swear I've told that girl often enough that she needs to go to the doctor's office. It just isn't healthy to have to run to the restroom that often."

"Oh," Caline lips curved upwards, almost successfully stifling a choked laugh. Poor Marinette. That had to be a rather awkward conversation. "Ahem. Unfortunately, the secretary misdirected Adrien's absence request for this afternoon to me."

"Well." Madame Mendeleiev's brows raised haughtily. "Make sure to send any of those notices my way earlier in the day next time."

"Oh, I will." She waved over her shoulder as she exited the dragon's den, shaking her head as her eyes lifted skyward.

Clearly, someone needed to watch over those two kids. It had been pure luck that they hadn't been caught out in their lies before and, unless she stepped in, it was only a matter of time before it all fell apart.


	2. Chapter 2

Caline straightened her suit and drew a deep breath before she entered the classroom, briefcase of lesson plans and graded pop-quizzes and piping hot thermos of coffee in hand.

She was supposed to be composed. She was supposed to be serene.

Especially in light of her initial suspicions and the continued trend that she now tracked methodically in her lesson plan book, she grew more and more certain of Adrien and Marinette's extra curricular activities by the day.

She grew more and more cautious of anyone finding out their secrets.

Unfortunately, Alya Césaire was nothing if not entertaining - and surprisingly loud.

Alya's blog was rather excellently put together. Caline made a mental note to pull her to the side to see if that exercise could be more appropriately developed into a true resume builder for her eventual career plans.

But what had her struggling to keep her composure was the interaction she was rather strategically attempting to ignore by studiously reviewing her lesson plans for the day, and failing rather spectacularly.

Because the worst kept secret in the classroom (if not the school) was Marinette Dupain Cheng's poorly concealed crush on Adrien Agreste. She knew it was bad the moment that she'd heard even Principal Damocles had heard about it.

Incredibly, Adrien - otherwise clever boy though he was - seemed perfectly oblivious to the fact.

Caline coughed, pressing her hand over her lips, to stifle her own amusement at the sheer absurdity of the situation.

"Seriously?" She had heard Alya speaking as she entered the classroom, plain as day. "You've seen the pics, Marinette. You can't deny that Chat Noir has a thing for Ladybug."

Marinette's eyes rolled hard at that. "They're partners, Alya. Of course, they are going to protect each other."

"Protect nothing, girl." Alya crowed a bit more loudly than necessary. Several of the other classmates were already peering over in their direction. "I'm talking about the way he's looking at her."

Poor Adrien nearly fell out of his chair. His brows rose as he not-so-subtly turned himself around just enough to overhear the whole of their conversation.

When Marinette rolled her eyes and groaned, Caline pressed her lips together, lifting her eyebrows and wondering which one might break first: Marinette's clearly strained patience or Adrien's chair legs.

Her eyes drifted up to the clock on the wall, noting that only two minutes remained before she needed to start her lesson. Surreptitiously taking a sip from the thermos she'd deposited on her desk, Caline waited to see if Marinette might notice Adrien listening in. The moment Marinette noticed, the game would definitely be over.

Was it technically unethical to mentally place bets with oneself in one's own classroom?

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

These chapters should be mostly set up as a continuing drabble series. I have a few projects that I am balancing right now, so I should be able to quickly run with an idea when one pops up.

Thank you all so much for this early burst of support! I'm really glad to see so many of you invested in the idea and I'm loving the opportunity to dive a little deeper into these oft forgotten characters. :)


	3. Chapter 3

As the last of the students had exited the class, Caline sat back in her chair sipping a mug of coffee that would keep her going through her planning period. The staff room was a bit too noisy with Mr. D'Argencourt actively lobbying for votes for his own mayoral campaign.

Besides, considering the nature of the assignment, she wanted to give the kids as much privacy as they were entrusting her.

Poetry was always a fun exercise, but not necessarily an area where every student excelled. So she set out a clear grading criteria, but she wasn't so rigorously defined in rules. Her goal, first and foremost, was to give each student the chance to appreciate every art form they ran across in their lives-even the ones they were less inclined to like at first blush.

She pulled the first entry up on her screen, fixing the pin that kept her hair locked into place.

One of her greatest joys in teaching was to give each of the students their own path to use as a creative outlet. Writing was just as much an exercise in creativity as it could be able self-discovery.

Students never really felt as free to express as they were when the knew the work wouldn't be shared. She encouraged them to all write what you know, write what you like. It was a neat way to get to know her students better.

Her lips curved atop the mug, as she brought it up to her lips, her eyes skimming over the lines as her mouse scrolled down the page.

Of course, if any of those entries reaffirmed certain theories, well she wouldn't be about to complain.

* * *

Stretching, Caline arched her back, keying in the last of the grades with a satisfying tap to lock her computer screen before collapsing back into the chair.

When she first started teaching, she'd done this exercise during the first week of class before she had gotten to know her students.

She had decided she would also give extra credit to anyone who could stump her on who they were. Everything was handed in electronically, so the only risks that people could choose to take was in their topic, their word choice.

It was fun, but they really hadn't had the chance to know her, so the responses she'd gotten were very formulaic and similar. She'd learned better the next year.

This year, the girls had generally done more of what she had expected.

Alya was definitely the voice behind the little short on the adrenaline rush of chasing down a big scoop.

Alix certainly mused on racing, on the rush of wind against her face, the sting of her muscles when the race was done, the ever present fear of falling that propelled her forward at breakneck pace.

Marinette did something creative on her drawing inspiration, in her ideal time to sketch she even mentioned some of the more tourist frequented sections in her work, but nothing that could firmly tie her to the superhero in red.

Caline had sighed as she read that entry. She really had been hoping for a something a little more telling related to her theories, but with as secretive as the girl tried to be it seemed like a more direct confirmation was destined to be a lost cause.

Chloe did a piece on fashion. Rose on dancing. Mylene on acting.

Juleka wrote on her fears of being unnoticed and her eye for detail...and what it felt like when those little things, those subtle choices were noticed and appreciated.

Even Sabrina did a surprisingly telling-and cutting-piece on unfairness of the class based system. Caline had smirked shamelessly the entire way through every surprisingly well-crafted rhyme.

But as much as the girls had generally done as much as she'd expected, the boys were the real surprise.

The boys all loved to groan about her enthusiasm for romance in class, but clearly they were playing that up to save face to their peers.

Grinning, Caline shook her head.

Ivan Bruel is quite the surprise romantic. It really wasn't quite what she'd been expecting after her interactions with him on the first day of class. It had taken some time, but it quickly became clear that he had a bit of a crush on Mylene.

Adrien was actually also quite adept with language, which actually made a surprising bit of sense considering his alter ego's predilection for puns.

But outside of the cleverness, she was no closer to true confirmation.

Max was still far too focused on the numbers and at least did not presently have a more romantic bend. But he did an interesting play with numeric emphasis on syllables not unlike Shakespearean iambic pentameter.

She was reasonably sure that it was Nathaniel who had a solid crush on Marinette, if only by his solid grasp of colors in the description.

Nino talked about music, finding the right mix to express his feelings.

But Kim? Now she was fairly certain that his was really the stumper. The boy definitely had a crush, although he wasn't nearly as adept with words as some of the others. He just talked about pretty hair and pretty eyes...and hoping to impress her.

And just who, exactly was she. Where it anyone else, there probably would have been a least a few context clues. But he was just so vague about the whole thing.

Caline rapped her knuckles on her desk, mulling her topic considering next week's lessons included Valentine's Day.

What better way but to appeal to those fellow, covert romantics than a week's worth of lessons in Fairy Tales?

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Thank you all so much for the positive feedback! I love this little story, but finding time has been a challenge of late.

But now I have...ideas. :D


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